Few species more interesting or bizzare than Pitcher Plants

Few species more interesting or bizzare than Pitcher Plants

The Gulf Coast is blessed with a great diversity of plant life. Of the myriad of plant species found in our region, few are more interesting or bizarre than members of the genus Sarracenia, the North American pitcher plants. Pitcher plants get their name from a modification of their leaves forming a tubular “pitcher”. These pitchers are brightly colored and look like flowers to many insects. The top of the pitcher even has a lid on which flying insects can land.
Pitcher plants not only attract insects to help with pollination, but also to dine on them. Pitcher plants are carnivorous. In addition to their bright colors, they have nectar producing glands that also attract insects. These “nectaries” are usually strongest near the pitcher’s opening, helping to lead many a hapless insect to its doom. Many species of pitcher plant also contain a toxic substance called coniine, which many scientists believe may act both an attractant and narcotic.
Once a hungry insect works its way into the nectar rich opening, it encounters the slippery inner surface of the pitcher. From here they may slide down to the fluid-filled bottom. Once at the bottom, escape is made even more difficult by downward pointing hairs on the inside of the pitcher.
The fluid at the bottom of the pitcher consists of digestive enzymes, much like those found in an animal’s stomach. In addition to the enzymes, there are certain larval forms of mosquitoes, midges, and flies, along with bacteria that consume and digest the captives.
Pitcher plants produce their flowers in the early spring, a little before the pitchers begin to form. The flowers are on long stems, well above the pitchers that may form, so as not to turn any potential pollinators into meals. That comes after pollination is over.
The flowers usually have a strong scent, with one species even smelling like cat urine while another smells minty. These odors attract a wide range of pollinators, with bees being the most common.
After about two weeks, the petals drop off the flowers and the plant’s ovary swells with as many as 600 seeds. After about five months the seeds are mature and are dispersed. The pitchers will continue to trap insects until late fall, when they wither.
So what is the point of digesting insects? Pitcher plants grow in acidic, water-saturated soil (bogs). Many of the nutrients necessary for growth and survival (such as nitrogen compounds) have been leached out of these soils. The pitcher plants compensate for this by extracting these nutrients from digested insects.
Pitcher plants like open areas with direct sunlight. When a pitcher plant bogs grows up in shrubs and thick tree cover, it shades the pitcher plants out. Fires have historically kept these bogs open, and many natural areas periodically burn their bogs (when they have dried out) to maintain the habitat for these fascinating hunters of the plant world.
There are eight species of pitcher plants in North America. Seven of these are found only in the southeastern United States, with one species, the purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) growing as far north as northern Canada.
Pictured: A white-topped pitcher plant at a pitcher plant bog